The present invention generally relates to a system and method for sealing a mailing article. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for sealing a flapless envelope.
It is generally known to provide a system for automatically sealing an envelope. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,864 to Dicker discloses an apparatus for folding and sealing a mailer blank that includes a water applicator for activating remoistenable glue strips on the mailer blank prior to folding it to form an envelope. Glue is disposed along the longitudinal edges as well as the transverse edge of the mailer and one mailer section forms a flap with glue for sealing the mailer. To this end, Dicker also discloses applying the water by using water reservoirs having tubes to deliver the water from the reservoir to an applicator. Dicker discloses using a rotatably mounted wheel capable of picking up water from the reservoir for application to the underside of the blank. Alternatively, an applicator may be a brush that extends upwardly from the reservoir or a nozzle that uses gravity fed water to moisten the delivery.
However, Dicker discloses an envelope that has a flap with a contoured closing portion that must be folded to seal the envelope. Thus, another time consuming folding step must be performed to seal the mailer. In addition, the folding devices are often costly and add another step to the process of sealing the envelope.
To avoid the extra folding step involved with using an envelope having a flap, the inventor herein has developed a flapless envelope. Co-pending patent application U.S. Ser. No. 08/398,747 discloses a flapless envelope. Such an envelope is provided with an adhesive on an inner portion of the envelope and does not have a flap. Thus, the disadvantage of adding costly folding equipment to the process of sealing the envelope can be avoided if a flapless envelope is used as disclosed in the co-pending application referenced above.
A need, therefore, has arisen for a system and a method for sealing a flapless envelope to minimize the steps involved in the process by reducing the devices needed to seal the envelope.